Charlotte Brontë and the Author Portrait

A Brontë talk given today, November 17, at the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society:

Charlotte Brontë and the Author Portrait
Dr Julian North
Senior Lecturer in 19th Century English Literature University of Leicester
Monday 17 November at the Art Gallery and Museum, New Walk, 7.30 pm

Charlotte Brontë has always been seen as a writer who was shy of publicity, but the evidence suggests that she thought carefully about how her reputation might be shaped through portraiture - and that she was less modest in her self-image than has previously been recognised. This lecture will consider Brontë's own, fantasy author portraits, drawn in the 1830's when she was a teenager; her feelings about the now-famous portrait by George Richmond (1850); and the new evidence that she was invited to sit for a daguerreotype portrait, and refused. the lecture will end by showing how her image was used and transformed by the Victorians after her death.

Dr North said: “Charlotte Brontë has always been seen as a writer who was shy of publicity and wanted to "walk invisible".
“But the evidence suggests that she thought carefully about how her reputation might be shaped through portraits – and that she was less modest in her self-image than has previously been recognised.
“This lecture will consider Brontë’s own, fantasy author portraits, drawn in the 1830s when she was a teenager; her feelings about the now-famous portrait by George Richmond (1850); and new evidence that she was invited to sit for a daguerreotype portrait, and refused. The lecture will end by showing how her image was used and transformed by the Victorians after her death.” (Source: University of Leicester)